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June 4, 2012

4 New Ways to Use Your Bead Crimping Pliers

Bead crimping pliers
are used to flatten and smooth crimp beads on beading wire. When used properly, they eliminate sharp, flat crimp beads and leave a smooth rounded bead that holds wires better than those closed with ordinary pliers.

What you might not know, is that there are at least 4 other nifty ways to use your crimp tool. Try these and let me know how they work for you.

Tuck wire ends on wraps: Use the crimp tool when you are creating wrapped loops to get into tight spaces and tuck the wire ends in. You can use either the front tips or the crimp rounder. This will help you finish the wraps neatly.

Create a paddle pin: Paddle pins are like head pins, but they have a wider, flat surface like a paddle. To make a paddle pin with the crimper, just take a piece of wire less than 20g thickness, place it in the tips of the jaws and squeeze. The crimper will make a flat paddle that can be used to hold beads. The beads must fit the wire snugly though, since the paddle is not very wide.

Create a wide paddle pin: If you have the same crimp pliers pictured above, you can use the back flat portion of the jaws, just behind the 'c' groove to flatten wire. This creates a wider paddle pin than using the front part of the plier. Make sure you look for sharp edges when using this part of the plier, since it does not always leave a smooth edge.

Start a wire coil: I always have trouble starting a coil with the thick piece of wire. I find that by using the crimpers to flatten the wire end (i.e. make a paddle pin first) and then start coiling, the resulting spiral is rounder and smoother.

And of course, use it to fasten crimps! Below are some earrings that use paddle pins made with my crimp tool.

4 comments:

I really appreciate knowing all those uses. I had already been finishing wrapped loop ends that way because someone, maybe Szarka (or you) had given that tip out in the group. Love the idea of flattening wire to make a paddle. Thanks again!

These are also great for rounding wraps. You have to be careful, but it beats hurting your fingers. I put a bit of blue tape on the jaws before using. You can also use them for texturing. Very handy to have on hand.

What a great idea to use blue tape on the jaws. I did try texturing too - but I wasn't totally convinced I liked the effect. I guess I should have added it to the list though. Thanks for your comments!

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